Saturday, November 10, 2012

After a fortnight's hiatus, the Breakfast Links are back! We're offering up a tasty serving of links to web sites, photographs, blogs posts, and other assorted goodies, gathered for you this week from Twitter.
• Fantastic story from London Times 1796: girl in boy's clothes on the run from wicked stepmother is press-ganged into Navy.
• Ancient princess's tomb discovered in Egypt.
• The Spinster Book: "Notes on Men" from 1901.
• Lovely photo of stained glass window in the Burns Club in Irvine - like melted toffee with words!
• "A Turtle-feast is equally relished at both Ends of the Town": 18th c. Turtle Mania.
• Regency assembly rooms in Birmingham.
• Not just for Halloween: a bat hat, c. 1916-18.
• Elegant toothpick cases: are they handsome enough to tempt Robert Ferrars?
• Fire over England, 1605.
• Niccolo Machiavelli, the cunning critic of political reason.
• The secret lives of kitchen spices: nutmeg repels fleas *and* the Black Death!
• Sorry, no fur coats: strict listing of what women could (and couldn't) wear as yeowomen in the US Navy, 1918.
• The art of hair.
• La Marseillaise in an English satirical print, 10 November 1792.
• Medieval beavers on the run.
• Of heffalumps and hunny: the language of Winnie-the-Pooh. More Pooh in original E.H. Shepard illustrations.
• For British Sausage Week: recipes for making sausages the 18th c. way.
• Beautiful early 20th c. cape with elaborate gold embroidery.
• A virtual wander through Wimpole Hall.
• All aboard for lunch: 1920 menu of the T.S.S. Columbia of the Anchor Line.
• The Female Detective, 1864, first crime novel with a lady sleuth, now republished by the British Library.
• Ale, gambling, and dragon's blood: all part of young Humfrey Wanley's life in London, c. 1700.
• An unusual Austen sighting: Mr. Knightley's Gaiters.
• "The sacrifice is not in vain": An American Red Cross nurse writes to the mother of a deceased young soldier, 1918.
• Bram Stoker, the father of the modern vampire.
• Seventeenth century household management: making a peacock look like a porcupine, napkin folding, and cooking Eggs a L'intrigue.
• Fifth Avenue from start to finish: the 1911 equivalent to Google street view.
• Own a piece of fashion history! Madonna's corset, much more, at auction at Christies.
• The amazing floating bath and glaciarium on the Victorian Thames, 1870s.Want more? Follow us on Twitter for fresh updates daily!

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.